Africa-Press – Botswana. The Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD) has been allocated P100 million for delayed payments to farmers across the country.
Minister of Agriculture, Mr Fidelis Molao said when responding to a question in Parliament from Nkange MP, Dr Never Tshabang.
The money, Mr Molao said, was sent to different districts and that payments were ongoing and were expected to be completed by the end of this month.
He said more than P307.6 million had been paid to farmers across the country.
“The current outstanding amount is P186 million, being P100 million for the past ploughing season and P86 million prior years,” he said.
The minister said the delay to pay farmers was caused by shortage of funds allocated to the programme during the 2023/2024 financial year.
“A budget of P300 million was availed which is less than around P564 million needed for the entire cropping season,” he explained.
Other contributing factors, Minister Molao said, were the increase of draught power prices as ploughing or planting costed from P800 per hectare to P1 400 per hectare, minimum tillage from P500 per hectare to P900 per hectare and harrowing from P360 per hectare to P450 per hectare.
The minister noted that late payments were not peculiar to Nkange constituency where farmers were owed more than P3.2 million as that had happened across the country.
Dr Tshabang had asked the minister if he was aware of the delay in ISPAAD payment to farmers in Nkange constituency and what caused the delay in disbursing the payment and when he intended to finalise the payments.
Nkange MP also wanted to know how much was being owed to the farmers up to date, whether it was peculiar to Nkange constituency and if so, the reasons for the peculiarity.
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